THE LANDMARK SIGNONIO-EDITION

LIVIUS, TITUS

Historiarum ab urbe condita, libri, qui extant, XXXV: cum universae historiae epitomis à Carolo Sigonio emendati: cuius etiam scholia simul eduntur, quibus ijdem libri, atque epitomae partim emendantur, partim etiam explanantur.

Venetiis (Venice), Paulum Manutium (Aldus), 1555.

Folio (342 x 230 mm). In later half calf with five raised bands with gilt lettering to spine. Head of spine with repair, hindges bit weak and some scratches to boards. Ex-libris (H. P. Rohde, librarian at the Royal Danish Library) pasted on to verso of front board. Annotated by Rohde in pencil on front free end-paper. Title-page with a few dots and marks and light miscolouring to margins. First five leaves with small nick to upper margin, far from affrcting text. Damage to upper part of foreedge causing small hole to Pp. 30-130 in upper outer margin, far from affecting text. Very few sporadic dots throughout, overall internally very fine and clean. (4), 478 ff. (Wanting the 98 ff. of part II).

First edition of this monumental and landmark Livy-edition edited by Carlo Signonio, introducing critical methods for reconstructing the past which revolutionized the study of ancient Roman history and the Italian Middle Ages. This edition was the first systematically to apply critical method to the rendition of the text and to the chronology of Roman history, marking the beginning of a new approach in the study of Roman history. This edition ‘made Sigonio’s European reputation ... In the Aldine folio of 1555 the miscellaneous fragments of the various annotators were swept away, and readers were offered a revised text of Livy, majestically printed, and the imposing Scholia of Sigonio alone, scholia which in sheer mass, acumen, and acerbity, far outstripped the combined efforts of all his predecessors’ (W. McCuaig).

Order-nr.: 60251